In Shake-Up, Dean Names Gore Ally to Run Campaign

By JODI WILGOREN and GLEN JUSTICE

Published: January 29, 2004

BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 28 — After spending nearly $40 million only to face devastating defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean named a longtime friend of former Vice President Al Gore as his campaign chief on Wednesday, prompting the abrupt resignation of his campaign manager, Joe Trippi.

Dr. Dean said he had tapped Roy Neel, who was given the title of chief executive officer, to streamline day-to-day decision making as the Democratic presidential contest enters a lightning round of multistate contests. He said he had hoped to keep Mr. Trippi on as senior strategist.

But after a year of building the Dean juggernaut, from a staff of seven to what he has often called "the greatest grass-roots movement in the history of American politics," Mr. Trippi refused to be sidelined, and walked out after what aides described as an emotional staff meeting here.

"You're going to see a leaner, meaner organization," Dr. Dean, who has asked his 500 staff members to skip their paychecks for two weeks, told reporters on an 8 p.m. conference call. "We had really geared up for what we thought was going to be a front runner's campaign. It's not going to be a front-runner's campaign. It's going to be a long war of attrition. What we need is decision making that's centralized."

The selection of Mr. Neel, a former telecommunications lobbyist who was an aide to Mr. Gore for nearly 20 years, on Capitol Hill and in the Clinton White House, is a stark shift for an insurgent campaign powered largely by political neophytes whose main message is overthrowing the establishment. He is the ultimate Washington insider, not unlike like those Dr. Dean derides daily.

But campaign officials say Mr. Neel was hired to bring order and professionalism to the decentralized — often woefully disorganized — troops that Mr. Trippi led more by inspiration than instruction.

The shake-up comes at a perilous time for the Dean campaign. Only weeks ago, he was riding high in the polls and had amassed far more money than any other campaign. But this week, campaign fund-raisers said, the operation had only $4.5 million to $5 million on hand, about the amount it raised over the Internet since Jan. 1, and was scrambling to collect more money.

After raising $41 million in 2003, far more than any of his Democratic rivals, Dr. Dean spent so much on television and on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire that campaign officials said they were only confident of having enough money to compete through next week.

The campaign has upended its advertising strategy. Dr. Dean, who last June was the first candidate to advertise, is now the only major candidate to be off the air right now, and his strategists said Wednesday night that they were in no hurry to return. They confirmed last weekend that they had gone dark in every state but New Hampshire so they could reassess Dr. Dean's electoral chances and then flood advertising in those states they believed he could win.

Some of Dr. Dean's prominent supporters had, indeed, complained about the effectiveness of Dr. Dean's advertising campaign, which was bigger and more expensive than those of his competitors.

Figures from a rival campaign, confirmed by the independent Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks advertising spending, show that Dr. Dean has spent roughly $9.2 million in advertising since June, more than $2 million above the next highest advertiser, Senator John Kerry , who spent $6.9 million, the figures show. Nearly $6 million of Dr. Dean's campaign money went to advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire, where Dr. Dean finished third and second, respectively.

But senior Dean officials said the advertisements had greatly helped to build his popularity in the summer and fall, popularity that was slowly chipped away by attacks from rivals and with intensive scrutiny from the news media. "When you're winning, the ads are always great," said Steve McMahon, Dr. Dean's media adviser and a partner in Mr. Trippi's media firm. "When you're not, they're never quite good enough."

Some of the fund-raisers insisted that they were not giving up, and said the campaign had raised about $1.8 million since the Iowa caucuses and had continued to raise as much as $200,000 a day over the Internet.

The replacement of Mr. Trippi comes at a critical juncture for Dr. Dean, who spent most of last year as the dominant figure in the crowded Democratic field, but now faces an uncertain future. While his rivals spun out to the seven states with critical elections on Tuesday, Dr. Dean spent the day at his headquarters here, arguing with aides on whether to make an aggressive, targeted bid for a victory in certain states or try to continue campaigning coast to coast.

The only campaigning he did was taping 26 satellite interviews for stations in 12 states that vote in the next few weeks. While most people in politics, including many in his own camp, believe he must win a state on Feb. 3 — or Feb. 7 at the very latest — Dr. Dean said repeatedly Wednesday that he did not need to post a victory, only to keep amassing enough delegates to be the last man standing, or to stage a challenge at the party's convention this summer.

"I think we're good right through Super Tuesday," he said Wednesday morning on National Public Radio.